A high-profile doc working-titled “Tesla Files” that seeks to expose the alleged danger of Elon Musk’s political influence is set to be unveiled as a work-in-progress this week at the CPH:DOX international documentary festival in Copenhagen.
Produced by Germany’s Beetz Brothers and directed by Andreas Pichler (“The Milk System”) “Tesla Files” takes its cue from 100GB of leaked internal data provided by a whistleblower named Lukasz Krupski, who worked for Tesla in Norway, to German business newspaper Handelsblatt.
Krupski – who was fired from Tesla in 2022 – claimed the technology behind Tesla’s self-driving cars while he worked there was not safe enough to allow the cars to be driven on public roads.
In order to “understand Elon Musk today, we must examine The Elon Musk System — how he announces ideas, executes them, and relentlessly pushes forward technological solutions, often at the expense of truth and with real human consequences,” says the synopsis for “Tesla Files.” The timely doc is being produced by Beetz Brothers in tandem with a still unspecified German public broadcaster and a streamer. Beetz Brothers is a doc powerhouse specialized in political and investigative stories whose recent standout titles include true-crime docuseries “Mafia Hunters” and “German Cocaine Cowboy” and monarchic power exposé “Juan Carlos: Downfall of the King.”
Besides Krupski, “Tesla Files” provides testimonies from other former Tesla employees and whistleblowers. “We wanted to move beyond the data and show the human cost — families affected, victims, lawyers trying to fight back. These stories are painful and global,” Beetz Brothers CEO Christian Beetz told Variety.
Anne Von Petersdorff, who is producing the doc, noted that “Right now, Tesla is under investigation across Europe and by the Department of Justice in the U.S.” Therefore, “The timing of Musk’s political rise raises serious questions — was it a move to protect himself from accountability?,” she said.
The “Tesla Files” doc will weave three interconnected narratives. The first one is a storyline “that examines Musk’s grip on Tesla and his transformation from tech entrepreneur to political strategist,” according to promotional materials. The second is “victim stories, which focus on personal tragedies caused by Tesla’s autopilot, contrasting Musk’s grand technological ambitions with the real suffering of those left behind.” And the third delves into investigations into Musk following journalists and lawyers uncovering the inner workings of Tesla through leaked data and “revealing a pattern of cover-ups, regulatory evasion, and a growing entanglement between Musk’s empire and political power,” the materials say.
“Tesla Files” is being sold by Mediawan Rights, the sales unit of European media conglomerate Mediawan. Mediawan owns Germany’s Leonine Studios that, in turn, owns Beetz Brothers. They are roughly halfway through production.
